Palestinian leader claims Jesus is first Islamic martyr

The Church of Nativity in Bethlehem located in the West Bank, Palestine

According to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), the day before Christmas, one of Palestine’s senior leaders, Tawfiq Tirawi, who is also a member of the Fatah Central Committee, made an interesting comment on Facebook.

He referred to Jesus as the first Islamic martyr:

“This is blessed Christmas, The birthday of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, the first Palestinian and the first Shahid (Islamic Martyr).”
Tawfiq Tirawi Facebook page, Dec 24, 2019

The word “shahid” refers to a person who has died for his Islamic beliefs and as a reward will receive 72 virgins in heaven.

Of course the Quran was not written until six centuries after Christ died when an angel gave it to Muhammad between 609 AD and 632 AD.

Nevertheless, Islam retroactively claims Jesus as their own Islamic prophet and teacher. Islam also claims the Old Testament Jewish prophets, such as Moses and Isaiah, were Islamic.

As demonstrated by Tirawi’s tweet, some Muslims have even taken to celebrating Christmas. In fact, Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas declared Christmas as a Palestinian holiday, and it is even listed as an official Palestinian holiday along with other key Islamic dates including Muhammad’s birthday which is November 9.

Along with this, PMW reports on December 24, Laila Ghannam, the governor of the Palestinian province of Ramallah, stated:

“The entire Palestinian people celebrate Christmas because we are proud of Jesus being a Palestinian.”
Laila Ghannam, Al-Hayat Al-Jahida, the official publication of the Palestinian Authority

Of course this is not the first time this happened. There have been several claims that Jesus was not a Jew, but instead a Palestinian. The Bible clearly states in the Christmas story that Jesus was circumcised on the eight day according to Jewish tradition (Luke 2:21).

In 2014, a Muslim group even put up a billboard in Columbus, Ohio claiming that Jesus was a Muslim.

We shouldn’t be surprised by this because Jesus has a very prominent role in the Qur’an where there are more references to Christ than even Muhammad.

What the Qur’an says about Christ:

He is called a prophet (Surah 2:136).
A miracle worker that included healings (Surah 3:49), and raising the dead (Surah 3:49).
They believe Jesus was born a virgin, but do not believe Jesus is the son of God because it would involve God having sex with Mary (Surah 19:20).
They do not believe Jesus is God (Surah 19:88-92) and do not worship Him (Surah 5:116).
Though Muslims do not believe Jesus died on the cross, (they believe someone else died in his place) (Surah 4:157-158), they believe God took him to heaven before Jesus died and that Jesus will return with the Islamic Messiah.

Though it easy to be offended by Islamic claims about Jesus, because of the Lord’s prominence in the Qur’an, God is able to take advantage of that communicating to Muslims via dreams leading them into a personal relationship with Christ as the Jewish Messiah.

In its article, The Jihadi who turned to Jesus, the New York Times even reported on how dreams played a key role in a Muslim jihadist and his family becoming Christians.

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